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By Michelle Williams
University Park Mayor John Tabori told council members at a town meeting this week that the high levels of trash the town generated at the beginning of the decade spoke to the economy’s health. "If you look at the trash tonnage, it correlates with the economy. [Tonnage increased when] people were buying more," Tabori said. And, on the flip side, last year's drop in town trash levels track with the drooping economy, he said. The level of town trash rose from 1,033 tons in 1999 to a peak of 1,563 tons in 2006, he said. In 2007, after the housing market had cooled and subprime mortgage defaults had risen, the mayor said the town's trash totals slipped to 1,448 tons. Construction in the town and a fair number of house re-sales were possible reasons for the increases through 2006, the mayor and council members said. Younger families started moving in, and younger familes tend to generate more trash because there are more people in the household, Tabori said. Jeffrey Michael, a Towson University associate professor in economics, said there is some truth to the trash-economy correlation. “If there is less building going on and less building material going to the dump, then sure,” Michael said. Ward 7 Council member Bradley Carpenter said that using the trash collection numbers was an interesting way of looking at the community’s economic health. “So if we see the mayor running around looking at trash, we know it’s just research,” Carpenter said. Maryland Newsline's Michelle Williams may be reached at mwilli30@umd.edu. |
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